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      10-14-2021, 12:35 PM   #1
ArturDwora
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Unhappy BMW M235i (N55) Cold Start Issue



Hi guys, I have recently purchased my first ever 6 Cylinder BMW and I have owned it for roughly over a month. This cold start issue has been happening since the start but it has recently stalled on me twice when trying to cold start. I have not touched anything during the cold start and the engine proceeded to stall.

The revs raise to 1,2k then drop to around 300 (this is where it has started stalling sometimes) then suddenly raise again to around 2,1k then drop to 1,2k and the cold start works as it should.

It is important to remember that no other issues exist or are apparent after the cold start and no errors are present when using BimmerLink to scan the car however, when using My BMW to request archived data about the car there was an error that led to the Throttle Position Sensor.

I was wondering if anyone has an idea why this is happening or if they have solved this issue in the past.

Thanks,
Artur

Last edited by ArturDwora; 10-14-2021 at 12:41 PM..
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      10-14-2021, 02:21 PM   #2
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It could be the throttle position sensor going out again. When I had mine, there was never any instance of that. Could yours have been tuned at some point?
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      10-14-2021, 02:54 PM   #3
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how does it start and run when its warm ?
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      10-14-2021, 03:00 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TAZ007 View Post
It could be the throttle position sensor going out again. When I had mine, there was never any instance of that. Could yours have been tuned at some point?
I have no idea if it was tuned but everything on this car is stock and its a super high spec from factory it also looks like it has been garaged most of its life. When checking the private plates that were on the car the people that have had it moved on to some pretty nice cars if they still have those private plates.
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      10-14-2021, 03:01 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Oltimer View Post
how does it start and run when its warm ?
Runs perfectly fine to be honest. I've seen a lot of people saying they have this exact same issue and it runs fine after the cold start but no fix
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      10-14-2021, 03:02 PM   #6
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I don't get this with my 2016 M235i - If I start the engine and don't engage, it'll go from around 1100 > 800 > 600, ±50 or so. It's garaged most of the time.
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      10-14-2021, 03:25 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by msej449 View Post
I don't get this with my 2016 M235i - If I start the engine and don't engage, it'll go from around 1100 > 800 > 600, ±50 or so. It's garaged most of the time.
I think this issue has been mostly appearing on 2014 cars and with the fuel pump recall it doesn't surprise me however my car is from August 2014 and it is not covered by the recall (01/09/2013 – 30/04/2014). I have bought a car vertical though and it says my car was manufactured in 2014/01/01 but it did say "The date may be approximate".

Some people have said that getting the car tuned and removing the cold start fixes it others had their fuel pump replaced with the recall had also some new software that fixed it apparently as well.

I just don't fancy buying a fuel pump and then realising its a software issue. I will try logging the fuel pressures and see if they're within the norm when doing a cold start.

One thing I didn't mention is that it only happens after the car has been parked overnight.
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      10-14-2021, 04:28 PM   #8
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Super common issue and seems to be happening way more in the past year on N55 M235s, M2, and 3/4 series cars equipped with the MPPK tune. I wonder if fuel producers are using some new additive that the DME doesn't like on a cold start? Any way, as taken from my post in this thread: https://www.2addicts.com/forums/show...1143107&page=2

Quote:
On a warm engine that's off, disconnect the MAF sensor, and restart the car. Let it run at idle for a few minutes. Then shut the engine off. Reconnect the MAF sensor and see if it remedied the issue on the next cold start.

After a bit more research on this forum and the F-series 3/4 series forum, it appears that this particular issue of nearly stalling on a stone cold start tends to effect N55 6MT cars that have the MPPK tune. That would mean the M235 (comes with the MPPK tune as stock) and the 335/435 cars that have added MPPK tune. This issue appears to be more prevalent in cars with aftermarket air filters.

This cold start nearly stall issue popped up in my 2016 M235 very shortly after I swapped my AFe air filter back to the OEM air filter. I had the AFe filter in for about a week before swapping back to the OEM air filter. I've also been running the M2/MPPK airbox for over a year.

My spark plugs are OEM and were replaced within the past year.

The issue didn't remedy itself with gas from a different station.

I had not CELs or ghost codes.

The car drove fine otherwise, including hot restarts.

I have the OEM battery which I put on a tender once or twice a month. The battery checks out completely fine.

There are no vacuum leaks.

I'm not one to throw parts at a fix and it didn't make much sense to me that something was broken or going out given that this issue only occurs for about 1 second on a cold start. I knew BMW would be of no help as there aren't codes and seeing from what others went through with BMW, I wasn't going to let them throw parts at the car in hope of fixing the issue.

Someone in this thread said they thought it may be a learned tuning glitch. They pulled the MAF sensor a few times and ran the car that way and they said the issue cleared up. I figured, what the heck?

So 5 days ago I did the following: on an off warm engine, I disconnected the MAF sensor and started the car. I also removed the four most easily accessible coil packs and inspected them. I saw no issues with them. I reinstalled them on different plugs though just for the heck of it. I then started the car and let it run for 10 minutes. No CEL light turned on (I didn't check for ghost codes). I then shut the motor off. 18 hours later, I restarted the car and it started perfectly. No hiccups what so ever. It's been that why for the last 4 days.

I'm pretty certain it was a learned tuning glitch with the DME, possibly with me swapping the air filters. I'm not sure why this would cause an issue as I've swapped between the AFe filter and OEM filter numerous times over the past 4 years. Yanking the MAF somehow remedied it. I doubt swapping the coil packs around did anything, but it's worth doing at the same time because it takes 5 minutes to do.
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      10-14-2021, 06:23 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by XutvJet View Post
Super common issue and seems to be happening way more in the past year on N55 M235s, M2, and 3/4 series cars equipped with the MPPK tune. I wonder if fuel producers are using some new additive that the DME doesn't like on a cold start? Any way, as taken from my post in this thread: https://www.2addicts.com/forums/show...1143107&page=2
Thank you for this. I will definitely do it and report back as soon as I can. From my own findings or just pure luck after resetting the codes from error memory and info memory it sometimes would perform a normal cold start too.
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      10-14-2021, 06:41 PM   #10
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Sounds like a common issue. My previous car was a 2011 335ix (6MT N55) with the stage 2 BMW PPK. It used to do this most noticeably in the winter when it was really cold out. It rarely stalled though, and on the few occasions it did it started right up again no problem. Dealer did not find any codes that would indicate a problem so I just lived with it.
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      10-14-2021, 08:05 PM   #11
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disconnecting the MAF puts the car into "Alpha N" tune. basically runs by a predetermined air/fuel table. I've had to do this on my M235i and my wife's 335i which doesn't have the MPPK tune. in my cases, it did correct the cold start stumble.
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      10-15-2021, 07:24 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by celsdogg View Post
disconnecting the MAF puts the car into "Alpha N" tune. basically runs by a predetermined air/fuel table. I've had to do this on my M235i and my wife's 335i which doesn't have the MPPK tune. in my cases, it did correct the cold start stumble.
Would you recommend unplugging the sensor before the cold start when the car is off or shall I warm it up first and then unplug it, then let it idle for around 10 minutes like it says a few posts up.

BTW I have managed to get the car data again and I have these two faults apparently recorded however they do not show up on the OBD tool.

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      10-15-2021, 09:52 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ArturDwora View Post
Would you recommend unplugging the sensor before the cold start when the car is off or shall I warm it up first and then unplug it, then let it idle for around 10 minutes like it says a few posts up.
what I've done is go out on a regular trip and when I come home park in the driveway and unplug the maf for 10 minutes without ever turning off the car.
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      10-15-2021, 12:19 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by celsdogg View Post
what I've done is go out on a regular trip and when I come home park in the driveway and unplug the maf for 10 minutes without ever turning off the car.
Ahh I see. I have went on a little drive around town to warm up the engine, turned it off, unplugged the MAF sensor, turned it on and let it idle for 10-11 minutes and turned it off again.

I will report back tomorrow on how the cold start went.

Big thanks to everyone for being kind enough to help me out.
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      10-16-2021, 09:49 AM   #15
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Looks like you got all the answers, but since I took a video of the startup, here it is anyway:



This is a Sports Auto in [P] from cold, albeit as you can see the ambient temperature is quite mild.
Looks like it runs 1200 ... 900 ...... 800 .. 700
Once it drops to 700 it stays there indefinitely.
Fuel is Shell V-Power Unleaded 99 RON (US ≡ 93-94)
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      10-17-2021, 07:29 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by XutvJet View Post
Super common issue and seems to be happening way more in the past year on N55 M235s, M2, and 3/4 series cars equipped with the MPPK tune. I wonder if fuel producers are using some new additive that the DME doesn't like on a cold start? Any way, as taken from my post in this thread: https://www.2addicts.com/forums/show...1143107&page=2
The last three cold starts since doing the MAF sensor trick have been faultless! Thank you so much for linking the thread and for your time to help me out.
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      08-01-2022, 01:37 PM   #17
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Just want to say thank you so much for this XutvJet my 50k mile 335 with the MPPK had started doing the same thing a few days ago for no rhyme or reason.
Followed your instructions and had a totally normal cold start this morning. I agree with you that it could possibly be a tuning glitch. Pulling the MAF seemed to do the trick. I can now relax.
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      08-27-2023, 04:57 PM   #18
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Just for added confirmation, my 2015 M135i was having the same issue when cold starting. It was getting so bad that it was nearly stalling 90% of the time when starting from cold but started normal when hot.

So, after commuting home, I turned off the engine and unplugged the MAF sensor, restarted the car and left it idling for 10 minutes. It might've been in my head but I straightaway thought the car felt more smooth at idle for those 10 minutes.

I have now started the car when cold 3 times, and each time it has been faultless. No stutter, no drop in revs, a nice cold start sound from the exhaust

Many thanks to who suggested the fix, really does seem to work!
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